1 Most poetry is written alone. It's hard to have fun with a party of one! Pen pal poetry involves at least two people. The more people you add, the more fun you can have!2 What is a pen pal poem? According to the book, How to Write, Recite, and Delight in All Kinds of Poetry by Joy Hulme and Donna Guthrie, it's a poem that rhymes. Two (or more) poets (classmates) take turns adding lines to a poem. The first person who writes a line gets to choose what kind of poem it is. It might be a couplet - a two-line poem. It might be a limerick.3 Rules:

1. The poem's first line should end with a word that's easy to rhyme. Don't use a word like "orange" or "fabulous."2. The first line determines the rhythm of the poem. The second line should have the same rhythm as the first line.3. The third line can continue the rhyme or begin a new rhyme. Again, the end rhyme should leave many choices for a rhyme to go with it!4. When there are more than two students working on a pen pal poem, each student should get at least two turns. A group of three students would create a six-line poem; a group of four would create an eight-line poem, and so forth.